Building codes, sparked by federal requirements, have recently been changed to establish new requirements for accessibility of manual stations or activators for fire alarms. The early codes and requirements will henceforth be referred to as "early" or "old". The current changed codes and new requirements will henceforth be referred to as "new". Building codes for public buildings such as schools, department stores and libraries, among many others, have long required fire alarm switches or manual stations to be positioned where they can be readily accessed by occupants. These old manual stations were uniformly positioned at elevations above the floor which were sufficiently great to minimize access by children. Typical elevations for the old manual stations ranged from 50 inches to 62 inches (1.27 m to 1.58 m). Further, the old manual stations were designed to minimize false alarms by requiring some strength and or manual dexterity for actuation. Many old manual stations enclosed an alarm switch behind a plate of glass and required a person desiring to effectuate actuation of the manual station and thereby an activation of the alarm, to break the glass, generally with a small hammer hanging on a chain positioned nearby for the purpose. The alarm switch protected by the glass could then be accessed and actuated.
The new federal requirements were sparked by at least two-fold concerns: first, that people confined to wheelchairs would not be able to reach manual stations positioned high above the floor under the old codes; and second, that people not in wheelchairs but either elderly or having severe physical handicaps, would not have the mechanical strength or dexterity to break a glass window or would be intimidated by the need for such violent action and for any of those reasons fail to initiate an alarm when such action was clearly indicated.
The new federal requirements therefore mandated that manual stations for fire alarms be positioned with their centerline locations at an elevation no higher than 48 inches (1.22 m) above the floor and that no unusual strength or manual dexterity be required for actuating the tripper.
Owners of existing buildings, having manual stations installed at the old range of heights, are now required to install new manual stations which meet the new requirements for strength and dexterity at the lower elevations required by the new codes. Not only are the building owners exposed to the expense of purchasing new manual stations to meet the new requirements, but the owners must also pay for installing a new junction box at the newly required elevation, extending the wiring to the new junction box and patching or otherwise closing or covering the old junction box in an approved and sightly manner. In a union environment these steps might require services by electricians, lathers, plasterers and painters.
Through the use of manual stations of the present invention, all of the requirements of the new regulations and codes can readily be met simply by removing the old manual station and installing the new manual station, made in accord with the teaching of the present invention, in its place.
Further, the manual station of the present invention, though easily actuated by occupants of wheelchairs or by the disabled, avoids nuisance or accidental trips by requiring a special actuating motion which cannot be accidently generated. Further, the manual station of the present invention includes means for electrically alerting a remote supervisor or a supervisory network, in a trouble mode if the manual station is incorrectly or accidentally actuated and in an alarm mode if the manual station is deliberately actuated. It also simultaneously provides different mechanical indications which are easily discernable both at the manual station itself or at a distance, of either an accidental or nuisance trip on one hand or of a deliberate and effective actuation on the other.
The present invention teaches a manual station having a switch assembly intended to be mounted directly in place of the old manual station at the same elevation and on the same junction box on which the old manual station was mounted. The switch assembly includes mechanical arms extending downward and terminating in a pair of adjacent, ergonomically shaped, manual interfaces, each independently movable in a arc centered at the switch assembly. The mechanical arms and the interfaces have provisions to allow the distance between the interfaces and the switch assembly and thereby the elevation of the interfaces above the floor, to be adjusted and thereafter fixed to conform to the new requirements of the federal regulations and the conforming local and state codes.
By the use of manual stations designed and constructed according to the teaching of the present invention, conformance to the new regulations and codes can readily be achieved without the need for new wiring and without the need for cutting-in new electrical boxes and without the need for removing the old electrical boxes and patching the walls where they resided.
By the use of the present invention all the requirements of the new federal regulations can be met without costly utilization of multiple trades. Further advantages will be described and will be evident in the course of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment and other related embodiments.